Flyers grounded

Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

By Associated Press

OTTAWA -- It took him 27 games, but Radek Bonk made sure his first career playoff goal was very significant.

Bonk scored a power-play goal 2:04 into the third period and Patrick Lalime got his second straight shutout as the Ottawa Senators beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 Monday night. The Senators, who have allowed one goal all series -- none in regulation -- hold a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference playoff.

Bonk, who assisted on Ottawa's first goal Saturday for his second point in 26 playoff games, fired a shot from the slot past goalie Roman Cechmanek and just inside the right post.

The towels were on display again at 19:50 as Daniel Alfredsson scored Ottawa's second empty netter.

Lalime made 26 saves in his second career playoff win and shutout; he stopped 33 shots in a 3-0 win in Game 2 as the teams split the first two games in Philadelphia.

Game 4 in the best-of-seven quarterfinal will be here on Wednesday.

With speculation rampant earlier in the day whether Cechmanek would dress after he aggravated an ankle injury during the Flyers' 1-0 series-opening win, the 31-year-old Czech stopped 28 shots in his third straight start.

His spectacular glove save on Alfredsson with 6:18 remaining prevented Ottawa from going up by two.

Philadelphia, which got an overtime winner from Ruslan Fedotenko in Game 1, has yet to beat Lalime in nine periods of regulation play.

Bonk had two good scoring opportunities in the first, including a shot off the outside of the right post.

Ottawa's Zdeno Chara made the defensive play of the game in the second to spoil Philadelphia's best opportunity. The 6-foot-9, 255-pound defenseman sprawled on the ice and stick-checked the puck away from Philadelphia center Jeremy Roenick to break up a 3-on-1 late in the period.

Notes: A moment of silence was observed prior to the game in memory of the four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a bomb dropped by a U.S. fighter pilot last Thursday in Afghanistan. ... Six of the nine periods of regulation play in the series have been scoreless. ... Senators defenseman Wade Redden stopped Flyers forward Justin Williams in his tracks with an open-ice hit in the first. ... The crowd was 261 short of capacity.